1

s Steve Ballmer talked about in his keynote at the 2006Project Conference, the Microsoft team is still hard atwork building the next version of Office — formerly

code named Office “12.” Across the entire 2007 Microsoft OfficeSystem, the focus for our innovations has been the same: We’recontinuing to improve people’s ability to lead what Bill Gateslikes to call the “Digital Workstyle.”

In essence, we are trying to do what we can to make all thedetails of everyday business operate more smoothly andefficiently. The goal is to empower people to make betterdecisions through digital techniques and execute the processesthat drive business success. No application is more in tune withthis overall mission than Office Project.

Bringing people together with the intangible objectives andprocesses of an organization, is exactly why Project was designed.With people at the center, there are three areas where we aretrying to broadly innovate in the next version of Microsoft Office,and specifically with Microsoft Office Project 2007.

Unlocking Business Information and Putting it to Work

Number one, we’re trying to improve people’s ability to work withothers across boundaries. These boundaries exist in many areas –inside companies, between organizations, between informationsources, and between vendors, partners and customers. The

purpose here is to streamline access to information, so workerscan find what they need to make necessary decisions. Thisconcept has many implications, and the functionality we areproducing can support a wide variety of scenarios.

As it relates to Project 2007, these innovations come mainlythrough improved usage of Office SharePoint Server 2007, aswell as integration with the Microsoft Office Business ScorecardManager product introduced last fall. These innovations willhelp companies take more of the information that today feelslike it’s bound up in the project management system, and makeit more accessible.

Number two, we have tried to raise the visibility and insight intodata that comes from using Project. In other words, we are puttingthat new information to work in new ways with new tools, thatallow for better reporting and analysis. Importantly, this elevatesdata visibility to business decision-makers who are generallyoutside the main project flow.

For example, the Business Scorecard Manager allows thecompany to pull information from line-of-business systems. Keyperformance indicators such as project spend against budget invarious parts of the asset portfolio, can be displayed graphicallyusing Project 2007 through a SharePoint-based interface. Thesystem allows for a view into what’s on time, what’s over budget,and can provide very specific task information. And mostnotably, all of this information is delivered via the Web.

Optimizing the Company’s Asset Portfolio

The third area of focus is optimizing the company’s asset portfolio.Project 2007 gained a major piece of the puzzle — portfoliomanagement — through the acquisition of UMT, announced inDecember, 2005. In UMT, we acquired software and intellectualproperty that clearly puts us in a position to build the bridge fromthe world of projects and process, to the world of decisionsupport and business intelligence.

For users of Project 2007, the result is a set of decision supporttools that ties to the project management system. This enablesthe company to evaluate which projects are most valuable,which are least valuable, and which are worth the mostinvestment. Then based upon those decisions, the company can

MPA sponsored by:Continued on page three

A Focus on People: The Plan for Microsoft Office Project 2007By Daniel Queva, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Project

In This Issue:

1 A Focus on People

2 From the Editor

5 Microsoft’s New Portfolio ManagementOffering

6 Ask Brian

8 IT Staff Resource Capacity Planning Using Microsoft’s Project Server — Part II

11 Calculating Planned % Complete

13 Comparing Two Versions of an MS-ProjectSchedule

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“Microsoft recognizes MPA as the leading industryassociation helping project managers and organizationsget the maximum value out of Microsoft Office Project.With its different avenues to interact and network andresources on Microsoft Office Project, MPA is playing apivotal role in helping project managers and organizationslearn from each other and maximize the success of theirprojects using Project. We strongly believe that anyindividual managing projects would benefit immenselyfrom being part of this association.”

Michael Angiulo, General ManagerMicrosoft® Office Project, Microsoft Corporation

lthough the New Year is alreadythree months old, “new” remains acornerstone of the MPA mantra. We

kicked off the New Year in January, at thefabulous Microsoft Office ProjectConference. I’m sure for those who werethere, the “new and improved” version ofthe Office Project tool due later this year, isa highly anticipated launch. MPA will continue to provide expertresources to navigate these improvements, as we have in the pastwith all other versions.

Hopefully, attendees were also able to see all the new marketingcollateral materials which debuted at the Conference as well.Chapters will be receiving packages of these items as inventorylevels permit.

Also “new” in Q1 2006, was the online member survey, which somany of you were kind enough to respond to and participate in.Closed just a few weeks ago, we are still analyzing all the data.Using this direct information, we will be developing the results tooffer “new and improved” member benefits as the year progresses.Your feedback ensures that MPA remains vitally connected withour members and continues to attract a membership committedto growth, education and performance.

Our newest chapter, Mexico City, Mexico, was launched at the end ofJanuary, with a thunderous welcome. Boasting over 110 attendees atthe inaugural meeting, we welcome them with open arms.

I will take this opportunity to extend a heartfelt thanks to AshishChopra, who has moved to new position within Microsoft, leavinga very successful trail of new paths blazed with the vision ofMicrosoft and MPA. Ashish’s clear directive was to ensure theworldwide growth of MPA, to serve members around the globe,with accessible and value-driven benefits. Among his manyaccomplishments, we can cite the revised website, the rebrandingefforts and the market research survey. Thank you Ashish! Youwill be greatly missed. We will look forward to working with ournew Microsoft champion in Redmond, to help us secure supportand additional funding for special projects as needed.

Ahead of us, is Q2 2006. Three new months to continue tonavigate, develop and execute programs directed at the MPAmembership. Our immediate future brings us new fields toexplore as we pursue membership agreements with universitiesoffering project management course options, new chapters tofound and launch around the globe, and new ventures to evaluateand implement. I look forward to sharing all of the latestprogramming and benefit improvements with you as the yearprogresses. And of course, I wish you all a “Happy New Year!”

Best Regards,

Beth

From the EditorThe Official Industry Association forMicrosoft® Office Project

Email: info@mympa.org Web: www.mympa.org

MPA Headquarters3923 Ranchero Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 (U.S.A.)

Phone: 734.741.0841 Fax: 734.741.1343

MPA Board of DirectorsVolunteer OfficersPresident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JD HouseVice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heidi OstrowskiPM Educator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jun LuTechnology Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walid MourtadaAdvisory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suzann StoverAdvisory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bert VelascoStaff OfficersChief Executive Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christine BuonocoreVP, Sales and Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beth A. SwartzVP, Strategic Alliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tim CermakVP, Systems & Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kirk Vantine

The Project Network Newsletter

Editorial content: Articles, case studies, and tips are welcome! Please emailnewsletter@mympa.org. Entries may be edited for clarity and length.

Advertising: Advertising is open to any authorized Microsoft Office ProjectConsultant or Service Provider. For a Media Kit, email advertise@mympa.org.

The Project Network is a quarterly publication dedicated to inform themembership of MPA. The information published herein is believed to be reliable;however, the editor and other individuals associated with this periodical assumeno responsibility for inaccuracies or omissions. Publication of advertisements inthis newsletter does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by MPA. Signedcolumns are the opinions of their writers and not necessarily the opinion of thepublishers.

© Copyright 2005 MPA. All rights reserved.

MPA Mission StatementMPA is dedicated to fostering a dynamicprofessional association that serves as the

preeminent resource for Microsoft Office Project toa worldwide member community.

Beth A. Swartz

rick toalwaysinsight

Us for ahat youpa.org.

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determine how to allocate resources against those projects mostefficiently.

More than half of all projects that CIOs consider today do notget funded. These professionals are confronted daily withdecisions about which projects to fund, and how to allocatescarce resources. Our objective has been to provide tools,whether it's to the CIO or other decision-makers, that bringthese two elements together. With better evaluative criteria,companies can more effectively plan their project mix tooptimize business results and support their objectives.

To facilitate the proposal of projects in the first place, there is a newfeature in Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 that lets users entera project proposal through a simple SharePoint Web interface. Wecall this Web-based proposal management. This allows a broaderrange of employees to get their ideas into the system withouthaving to engage a project manager.

The interface can include parameters on time, budget and how theproposal aligns to the business drivers identified by the company.Work details can also be added to provide deeper information onwhat it's going to take to turn the proposal into a project.

Furthermore, using the Resource Plan feature in Project 2007,decision-makers can estimate the resources that must bededicated to the project, by skill, by named resources or genericresources, so they can more clearly develop a full picture of whatthe proposal entails.

A Focus on People

Once all the information is in place, Project 2007 puts it intoaction. This is much more than a list of proposals. Tightintegration with UMT Portfolio Manager, provides a much morepowerful environment that can apply real calculations and realanalytics. This helps the CIO make and communicate thedecision on which proposals get the green light.

Notably, the business drivers identified by the company can beranked. This allows the UMT product to provide a detailed viewof the ideas ranked by value, to the organization. The UMTsystem also allows the CIO to “force in” mission critical projectsthat must be funded, such as security, maintaining existingsystems, and compliance-driven controls.

The result is compared against available budget to create anoptimized mix of selected projects. The decision is now based on:business drivers, the alignment of the project to the business drivers,and other constraints such as total budget and critical projects.

Getting Started After the Green Light

Once the decisions are made on which projects to green light,the executive team can then push the decisions back into theProject 2007 workflow environment. At this point, they become“real” projects. All of this is done via the Web through integrationwith SharePoint. These projects have now all been approved, andfor each one, a new Windows SharePoint site has been created -a Project 2007 workspace.

Continued from page one

Continued on page four

4

Continued from page three

The Project 2007 workspace comes pre-populated withchecklists, specs, documents, best practices and other policies tofollow, based on the specific methodology in use by the company.Whether it’s a Microsoft Operations Framework or MicrosoftSolutions Framework, the solution creates a methodology, alongwith a place for people to start getting work done.

Driving increased participation on projects.

Integration of the new Outlook Scheduling available with the2007 Office System, is an amazing new feature. With theschedule and project information integrated into Project 2007,an employee with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 canparticipate, without getting started on the full Project 2007Professional product. These features, combined with the newimprovements on task integration, make working in Outlook2007 a completely natural way to be a participant.

From within the Outlook task view, users can indicate that a taskis 100 percent complete, which becomes a task update in theproject system. The task is updated on the central Projectworkspace, the resource availability is updated, and the taskschedule progresses to the next point.

Performance and Extensibility

Another critical point to notice with Project 2007, is that

Microsoft has put a great deal of effort into performance. Forthose who attended the (January) Project Conference, youprobably got a sense of how much we have improved this area.Recognizing this need, we have been able to achieve 100-to-1improvements due to changes we have made in patching.

And last but not least, is the extensibility. By transforming Projectto sit on top of the .NET and SharePoint-based infrastructure, allof the power that comes with those tools can be integrated withthe rest of the project management experience. Developersaround the world want to build-out custom projects, customprocesses, and custom workflows. We think that making thisextensibility simpler and giving developers access to better andbetter tools, provides a powerful combination.

In the end, businesses of all types will be able to benefit fromMicrosoft Office Project 2007. This new product will provide: abetter mix of work, real-time insight into the work portfolio, aconnection directly into line-of-business data, Web-basedscheduling and analysis, a connection with familiar tools (likeOutlook), and, of course, the newest addition to the Projectfamily, the UMT Portfolio Management Analysis Tool.

For Microsoft, that adds up to a lot of excitement around thisnew release. We look forward to seeing how the professionalcommunity is able to work with it and benefit from the manyenhancements.

A Focus on People

5

am going to tell you a common story about selectingprojects vying for the finite resources of time, money, andpersonnel. Let’s say, there are two competing projects that

both look like outstanding opportunities, but the organizationreally doesn’t have the resources to engage both projects at thesame time. The first project is championed by a very charismaticleader we’ll call Steve. The second project is lead by a veryintelligent but reserved person we’ll call Bill. Steve and Bill puttogether fantastic information about why their project should beselected and present the results to the project selection board. Asexpected, Steve does a great job presenting the merits of histeam’s project. Bill also gives a good presentation with greaterdetail on the project benefits. Which project will the selectionboard choose?

Often the answer is both projects, even though this puts thesuccess of each in jeopardy. If a single project is selected, then itis often the best sales presentation that wins. So what can we doto mature our organization and stop selecting projects based onemotion? The answer is portfolio management, which focuseson managing the overall portfolio of projects with respect tobusiness demands and constraints. Microsoft Project PortfolioServer 2007 will provide many capabilities to manage theportfolio of projects throughout the project lifecycle and evenlong-term product costs.

Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, whichwill bring vast changes to the project, resource, and portfoliomanagement space. Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 hasbeen greatly improved with a new architecture and many newcapabilities. Microsoft has also moved into the portfoliomanagement space with Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server2007. This article will touch on some of the capabilities andways an organization can put portfolio management to workwith Project Server 2007 and Project Portfolio Server 2007.

Portfolio management may be unique to each organization andit is important to understand the business drivers, requirements,and constraints of your organization. Pharmaceutical andfinancial institutions might be required to perform manyregulatory projects, while manufacturing or IT organizationsmight be able to focus more on growth opportunities.Understanding each measure and the appropriate importance orweighting, will allow an organization to focus their efforts on theprojects that will most support those metrics. Sample metricsinclude alignment to corporate goals, regulatory requirements,return on investment, resource availability, and cost.

The first step in managing a portfolio of projects is to ensure youstart the best projects that will return the most benefit to your

Pcubed (www.pcubed.com) specializes in EPM, server-based solutions, software implementation and technicalsupport. Drawing on vast customer experience andexpertise, Pcubed Perspective provides a blend ofstrategic and technical content, with a varied look at howMicrosoft Project is being utilized within the marketplace.

Pcubed Perspective

I

organization. A business case needs to be made for each projectin the form of a proposal that contains relevant information suchas investment cost, return on investment, scope, dependencies,risks, and alignment to strategic goals. Capturing all of thisinformation for each project will allow the projects to beintelligently compared and selected based on metrics importantto the organization.

While the selection of a project based on the organizationalmeasures is important, there may be other factors such asresource availability that would necessitate selecting a projectlower on the list of “best” projects. Portfolio management is notnew and many organizations have been practicing it for yearsalthough resource alignment has always been challenging.Project Server 2007 and Project Portfolio Server 2007 will worktogether to ensure the organizational constraints are broughtinto the project selection matrix. Portfolio Server 2007 willallow you to plan and align resource utilization with theportfolio of projects so that the best project becomes the optimalproject for your organization to perform at that point in time.

Another area where Portfolio Server 2007 will expand projectmanagement is to include costs associated with the life of theproduct. In traditional project management we are concernedwith the implementation of the product, but cease to concernourselves after it has been implemented. The product lifecycleexpands beyond the implementation to also include the costsincurred throughout the life of the product. Tracking these costswill allow better decisions when there is a desire to replace anexisting system. This can then become another metric in theproject portfolio selection process.

Project Server has enabled organizations to become moreefficient in project and resource management and I expect thistrend to accelerate with Project Server 2007. While projectmanagement has improved organizations, Project PortfolioServer 2007 has an even greater opportunity to truly impact andimprove how a company performs. The next few years look verypromising and I can’t wait to use these tools to truly improvehow a business operates. It won’t be easy, but it will mostdefinitely be worth it!

Microsoft’s New Portfolio Management OfferingBy: David Gage, Pcubed, PMP (Member, Knoxville, TN)

6

Ask Brian

Ask Brian covers topics appearing in the Microsoft OfficeProject Support Newsgroup, where people with questions aboutMicrosoft Office Project can interact and seek solutions.Members can find this newsgroup and many more in theMembers Only Section, www.mympa.org/members.asp

Continued on page seven

hree-point estimating helps project managers makebetter estimates. Instead of merely coming up with aballpark figure, managers using three-point estimating

have more granular control of how the end value is calculated.With three-point estimating, the end value is the weightedaverage of the estimates.

Project managers have been exposed to this technique throughPERT (Program, Evaluation, and Review Technique) three-pointestimating for Duration values. Microsoft Project gives us accessto PERT estimating via the Analysis toolbar.

PERT uses three estimates—Optimistic, Pessimistic, and MostLikely—to derive the duration of a task. PERT asks a projectmanager to give each of these estimates a weight, which whentaken together must add up to 6. You can think of the weight asa measure of confidence in that estimate. Figure A contains threeestimates and a weight for each.

TThree-point estimating for work values

Brian Kennemer, www.projectified.com ...endlesly obssessing about Microsoft Project so that you don’t have to.

OpWork

Most Likely WorkPess WorkOp WeightMost Likely

WeightPess Weight

21025033

Custom fieldField title

Number iOp Work

Number 2ML WorkNumber 3Pess Work

Number 4Op Weight

Number5Ml Weight

Number 6

Pess Weight

Text 1Work PERT Status

This particular weighting shows one of the advantages of three-point estimates. This project manager has decided tocompensate for some uncertainty or risk in the estimates bygiving no weight to the Optimistic estimate and nearly equalweight to the Most Likely and Pessimistic values. Because theML and Pess weights are nearly equal, the end value will beclose to the average of the Most Likely and Pessimistic values.An even more pessimistic assessment might give the MostLikely value a weight of 1 or 2 and the Pessimistic value aweight of 4 or 5.

Using the weights, the project manager can have morecontrol over how the estimates are used to get the value. Avery confident estimate might have a weight of 5 on theOptimistic estimate and 1 on Most Likely. Such optimism

Figure A

Figure B

might be appropriate for a task that has been completedseveral times before and has always taken the same amountof time to complete.

The basic formula for such a weighted average is as follows:

((Op * Op Weight) + (Pess * Pess Weight) + (ML * ML Weight)) / 6

Estimating work values

You can see the benefits of using three-point estimates in yourscheduling. But what if you tend to estimate work values insteadof durations? Microsoft Project does not have built-infunctionality for supporting this kind of "Work PERT"estimating. But one of the cool things about Project is that witha little work in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), you canmake it do almost anything. A very short VBA routine canprovide "Work PERT" functionality. It uses six custom numberfields (Number1 – Number6) and a custom Text field (Text1).Figure B shows how the fields should appear.

7

Continued from page six

You can choose to enter these fields in an existing view or createa new one for them. You can arrange them as you like, butremember which weight goes with which estimate.

One of the advantages of this tool is that it lets you set differentweights for each task. In Project’s normal PERT tool, you mustpick one set of weights for the entire plan. However, you mighthave different levels of confidence in the estimates for differenttasks. With the “Work PERT” tool, you can set weights on a task-by-task basis.

Once you have set the weights and entered the estimates, the laststep is to run the macro shown in Listing A. It will run only fortasks that have not yet started. For each task it runs through, itwill place a status in the Text1 field. For tasks where the Workvalue is calculated, it will enter the date the value was set. Forcompleted or in-progress tasks, the macro will enter “NotCalc'd: Task In Progress or Complete.”

If the weights don’t add up to six, the macro will return amessage in the Text1 field stating that there was a problem withthe weights. If you see this note, you should fix the weights andre-run the macro.

Listing ASub WorkPERT()

Dim tskT As Task

Dim blnFoundBadWeights As Boolean

blnFoundBadWeights = False

For Each tskT In ActiveProject.TasksIf Not (tskT Is Nothing) Then

If tskT.PercentComplete = 0 And tskT.PercentWorkComplete = 0 Then

If (tskT.Number4 + tskT.Number5 + tskT.Number6) = 6 ThentskT.Work = (((tskT.Number1 * tskT.Number4) _+ (tskT.Number2 * tskT.Number5) _

+ (tskT.Number3 * tskT.Number6)) / 6) * 60

tskT.Text1 = “Work Calc'd: ” & Now()Else

tskT.Text1 = “Not Calc'd: Weights <> 6”tskT.Work = 0blnFoundBadWeights = True

End IfElse

tskT.Text1 = “Not Calc'd: Task In Progress or Complete”End If

End IfNext tskTIf blnFoundBadWeights = True Then

MsgBox Prompt:=“Some Tasks Weight Values were foundto be incorrect.” & _

Chr(13) & “Check the Text1 fields for details.”, Buttons:=vbCritical, _Title:="WorkPERT Weights Error"

End If

End Sub©TechRepublic 2005. Reprinted with permission from TechRepublic.

8

IT Staff Resource Capacity Planning Using Microsoft's Project Server – Part IIBill Ferro, MS, PMP, The Cincinnati Insurance Companies (Member, MPA Greater Cincinnati Chapter)

ur previous discussion on this subject highlightedvarious IT resource management concepts that can beapplied using Microsoft’s Project Server. (See The

Project Network, Volume 9 Issue 3 – 2005, page 8). The Chart ofWork, Work Class, and Work Type categories are structures thatmay facilitate IT staff planning and forecasting of future workdemand. A more detailed description and discussion of anapproach for their implementation will be presented here. It isrecommended that the reader review the previous article on thissubject as noted above.

Recall the discussion of Work Type organization. High-levelWork Classes were described as Class 1 – Operational, Class 2 –Tactical, and Class 3 – Strategic. Within Project Server, thesemay be manifested as published project schedules comprised of“bucket tasks” with Start and Finish dates pertinent to theorganization. For example, the organization’s fiscal year may bethe appropriate interval. Organizations based on a calendarfiscal year would enter all tasks with Start dates of January 1 andFinish dates of December 31. These schedules describe theresource management Chart of Work.

The Chart of Work

The heart of IT Resource Capacity Planning is the Chart ofWork. The Chart of Work (COW) is an analog to an accountingsystem’s Chart of Accounts. The COW is a list of work categoriesto which time is reported. Much like the accounting budget, theCOW categories contain representation for an allotted amountof time, rather than money. In Microsoft Project, the COW takesthe form of a list of bucket tasks. Resources draw pre-planned –and thus, pre-allocated – time from their assigned COW tasks.This is accomplished simply by reporting time on the ProjectWeb Access (PWA) timesheet. An example Chart of Work forClass 1 – Operational work is shown in Figure 1.

Work Categories such as Production Support, DiscrepancyResolution and Required Maintenance may be used as summarylevel bucket tasks within the COW. These may also be furthersub-categorized to various lower level work or specific systems.

Resources can be assigned to these tasks in much the same wayas applied to any project schedule. A formal planning processwith each resource manager is suggested as an appropriatemanner to gather planned allocations for each resource. Eitherpercentages or specific time allocations can be applied for eachresource assignment.

One consideration is adoption of the axiom “Less Is Best.”Keeping the COW simple and avoiding too much detail, can helpto contain resource timesheet complexity and maintain ease oftime reporting. In addition, it helps to avoid too many workcategories and related standards facilitates management reporting.

Construction Hint: When building the initial COW schedule,extending the Finish date through the subsequent year willreduce the likelihood of diminishing Remaining Work tozero. This would cause you to run out of allocated work timeand dropping the given task off the resource’s timesheet. See

the example COW for Class 1 – Operational in Figure 1. Anew COW for 2007 would still be in order. However, byusing dates through the following year, the originally plannedallocations can easily be extended.

O

Continued on page nine

To illustrate the concept, we have elected to describe the Chartof Work as comprised of three Work Classes: Class 1 –Operational, Class 2 – Tactical and Class 3 – Strategic. A Class 2– Tactical schedule can be constructed similarly to the examplecited for Class 1 – Operational. The Class 2 – Tactical schedulemay contain work categories such as System Enhancements, OnDemand Work and Tactical Projects. Each of these may bedecomposed in a similar fashion, as required within the contextof the IT department. A Class 3 – Strategic schedule iscomprised of the various existing formal project schedules thatyou may already be managing. These are the schedules thatcurrently form the timesheets for the existing resource pool. Besure to carefully plan and use definitions for these Work Classesand categories. The definitions should completely partition theset of all IT work types that exist in your organization withoutambiguity or overlap.

Definitions

Work Type definitions are absolutely critical. Definitions for WorkClass and any sub-category work types – in addition to the Chartof Work – provide a standard for the organization. The standardpermeates throughout the Resource Management system,procedures and management reporting. The definitions should besimple, concise and avoid ambiguity. They should be agreed toand completely accepted by management of the IT organization.All terms describing the various work types and categories shouldbe formally defined. Reporting at all levels will depend uponconsistency of applying these definitions. An example definitionfor Class 1 – Operational work is given below.

Figure 1: Sample Chart of Work for Class 1 - Operational

9

Continued from page eight

Continued on page ten

Class 1 – Operational: Work that runs the business. This is non-discretionary work that must be done in order to execute the businessof the company. Relative to IT, this is the daily operation of thecomputing utility.

The Planning Process

Planning for application of resources to the Chart of Work issimilar to an annual budgeting process. Rather than monetaryunits being allocated to accounts and projects, units of time areassigned to resources based upon their annual availability. Forexample, if a resource is considered full time and has 2080hours available annually for work, this time can be allocated tothe entries on the COW. (Note: 2080 hours annually is based ona 40-hour workweek expectation.)

The planning process may be administered through a series ofindividual or group interviews with each resource manager. TheCOW can be used as the central focus of the interview process.Resource managers should first reduce the availability of eachresource by a planned Paid Time Off (PTO) amount, or perhapsuse an organizational efficiency factor. This reduces the annualavailability of each resource to a more realistic expectation –perhaps 70-75%. The remaining adjusted annual availability canthen be allocated over the proper bucket tasks on the COW. AnExcel spreadsheet for each resource may provide the mechanismfor gathering this data initially. The COW from the previous yearcan also be used for future annual planning processes.

The data gathered for each resource is then entered to the COWas a planned allocation. The COW schedule should be saved,with a baseline established, and published to the Project Server.The baseline becomes the Plan for each individual for the year.As Actual time is reported on the timesheet, Planned vs. Actualreporting can be provided through the Resource Center andPortfolio Analyzer views within PWA. Naturally, all workplanned for a given resource is not completely evident duringthe planning process. As work performed may vary over theyear, and work categories may be changed or resourceallocations adjusted, the reporting will reflect this. Shifting ofresources’ time between COW entries is similar to transferringmoney between accounts on the general ledger.

Reporting

Standard facilities of PWA can be used for resource managementreporting. The Project Center will provide a view of the COW bydisplaying the Class 1 – Operational and Class 2 – Tacticalschedules. The resources assigned to each COW entry (i.e. task) canbe seen. The Resource Center provides entry points to views thatcan display resource availability, over/under allocation, timesheethistory and accumulated year-to-date analysis. Portfolio AnalyzerOLAP views can be built to demonstrate total time planned andtime actually reported to the various Work Classes and categories.This can provide very valuable information to senior ITmanagement when planning for future project funding andinitiation. Figures 2 and 3 show examples of these reports.

10

Continued from page nine

Goal of Resource Capacity Planning

While IT Resource Capacity Planning can be a useful endeavor andprovide valuable data analysis for managing the IT department,there are other, long term objectives of the discipline. This includesthe ability to provide input to the IT strategic planning processthrough resource forecasting. Also resource effort history may beused for forecasting and demand planning. Existing Class 3 –Strategic projects represent a portion of the current demand for ITresources. Figure 4 depicts the requirement for IT to balancedemand for work with resource capacity planning. This topic willbe explored in greater detail in a future issue of The Project Network.

Figure 4: IT Demand and Capacity PlanningFigure 3: Percent of Effort Report Example

Figure 2: Resource Availability Report Example

Summary

In constructing an effective IT Resource Management system, careshould be taken in defining the various types of work performedby the organization. Through thoughtful planning of a Chart ofWork, the base structure of the discipline can be devised.Standard definition of terminology will enable consistentdepartmental analysis and management reporting at variouslevels. The structure for applying these resource managementpractices can be provided by Microsoft’s Project Server. Potentanalyses can be produced by utilizing the simple axiom “Less IsBest” and ensuring that resources report time consistently.

11

uring the execution of a project, most projectmanagers track work performed or % complete forindividual tasks. In Microsoft Project, these numbers

are rolled up so that % Complete is available for each of thehigher level summary tasks. This provides a good way oftracking progress at a higher level. However, it would even bebetter if the project manager could compare this to the originalplan. That is, if the project were executing according to plan,what would the % complete be? While Project does not providea field for planned % complete, it is possible to use calculatedfields to provide an estimate.

This paper provides a way of using calculated fields to calculatePlanned % Complete. To assure that the required informationis available, the following project management best practicesmust be adhered to:

• The original plan has been baselined.

• Progress is tracked within the schedule by periodicallyrecording % complete of individual tasks.

• When progress is updated the Status Date in the ProjectInformation is also updated.

Using the Status Date is recommended. If the Current Date isused, Planned % Complete will change on a daily basisandtracking data may not be available this often.

Calculating Planned % Complete

Calculating Planned % Complete requires a number ofsequential steps. First, the Status Date must be compared withthe Baseline Start and Baseline Finish:

• If the Status Date is before the Baseline Start, thenPlanned % Complete is 0%.

• If the Status Date is after the Baseline Finish, thenPlanned % Complete is 100%.

• If the Status Date falls between the two, Planned %Complete is assumed to increase linearly over the durationof the task.

This is shown in the timeline below.

When the Status Date is between Baseline Start and BaselineFinish, as shown, Planned % Complete can be calculated.

Calculating Planned % CompleteVincent McGevna, PMP

D Planned % Complete =

The numerator will be called Planned Duration for this analysis,and the denominator is Baseline Duration, which is savedwhen the baseline is taken.

Using Calculated Fields

The calculated fields in Project provide the functionality neededto make the calculations. The Customize Fields dialog can beaccessed via the Tools Menu [Tools | Customize | Fields… ] orby right clicking in the header of the table and selectingCustomize Fields. This brings up the Customize Fields dialogbox, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Plot of Planned % Complete

Baseline Finish - Baseline Start

In the Customize fields dialog box, the user can assign a nameto a field, provide a value list or a formula for a task field, andtell how to process summary rows. When using any of thecustom fields in Project (e.g. Number1 – Number20; etc.), therename should be selected to provide a unique, meaningfulname to identify the field and to notify others that it is beingused. As shown in the figure, Number11 through Number14have been renamed to parameters for the Planned % Completeanalysis. A field is selected and the Formula… button clicked.This brings up the Edit Formula dialog box:

Figure 2: The Customize Fields Dialog Box

Status - Baseline Start

Figure 3. Edit Formula Dialog Box. Continued on page twelve

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Continued on page fifteen

A formula is created using fields, operations and functions. Allof the fields in Project are accessible via the Field_ button, anda large number of useful functions are available by clicking onthe Function_ button. The specific functions required for thePlanned % Complete calculations are:

ProjDateDiff: Takes the difference between two dates basedon a calendar, ignoring non-working time.This is needed to calculate the durations.

IIF Evaluates a boolean function and returns oneof two parts if the expression is true or false.

Switch Evaluates a list of expressions and returns avalue based on the first expression in the listthat is True.

Choose Selects and returns a value from a list ofarguments.

Once a functions has been entered for a field, the user mustselect how to calculate the summary rows. The field at thesummary level can be ignored, rolled up using a number offormulas, or calculated using the same formula as in the taskfield. Calculating the Planned % Complete will require amixture of rolling up sums and applying the task formula at thesummary level.

The Calculated Fields for Planned % Complete

Now we are ready to perform the actual calculations. Whencalculating Planned % Complete, it is necessary to ignoreexternal tasks and tasks which have not been baselined. There

is a boolean field, External Task, which is true for externaltasks. However, there is no boolean field to identify if a task hasbeen baselined. When a task has not been baselined, itsBaseline Duration is 0. The duration of a baselined milestoneis 0, but this will not impact the calculations. Therefore, this willbe used to flag a non-baselined task.

To calculate Planned % Complete, the following number fieldswill be required:

• The region in which the Status Date falls. This will also beused to flag external and non-baselined tasks.

• Planned Duration. This is based on the location of theStatus Date.

• Baseline Duration. Although available in Project, it iscalculated to assure the same calendar as used for PlannedDuration.

• Planned % Complete. This is the ratio of PlannedDuration to Baseline Duration. This is expressed as aninteger from 0 to 100.

To roll up the Planned % Complete at the Summary Task level,Planned and Baseline Durations are each rolled up as a sum, andthen the ratio of these sums is taken.

The following number fields are used to calculate Planned %Complete:

Number11 [SDLocate]: Determine Location of Status Date

Set value: 0 – External Task or Baseline Duration = 0 (notbaselined or milestone)

Continued from page eleven

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Continued on page fourteen

here are times when you may need to compare twoversions of a project schedule. Starting with the 2003version of Microsoft Office Project, an add-in that

performs project schedule comparisons is automaticallyinstalled with the program. This add-in is also available as adownload from the Microsoft website for MS-Project 2002. Itcreates a report that shows the differences between two versionsof a schedule loaded into MS-Project as demonstrated in thefollowing procedure:

1. Open both versions of the schedule in MS-Project.

2. Pull down the Window menu and select the most recentversion of the project schedule.

3. Pull down the View menu and select Gantt Chart.

4. Ensure that the following fields are displayed in the view(using the Column… command from the Insert menu) if youwant them compared:

• Duration and Work for estimates,

• Predecessors or Successors for dependencies,

• Constraint Type and Constraint Date for constraints,

• Deadline for deadlines,

• Resource Names for assignments.

5. Right-click on any toolbar and select Compare ProjectVersions. This will display the Compare Project Versionstoolbar as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Compare Project Versions toolbar

Figure 3: The Done dialog

Figure 2: The Compare Project Versions dialog Figure 4: The Comparison report legend

6. Click the left-most button on the toolbar to open theCompare Project Versions dialog box as shown in Figure 2.

7. If you didn’t follow steps 1 and 2 of this procedure, you mayuse the Browse... buttons to change the designated earlier orlater versions of the schedule you wish to compare.

8. For this procedure, we are comparing the default Entry tablefor tasks. If you wish to compare a different table (such asCost, for example), pull down the field Task Table and selectan alternate table.

9. Selecting a table from the Resource Table list will also allowyou to compare resource information. However, for thepurpose of this article, we will stick to task comparisons.

10. Click the OK button and the comparison operation willbegin. When it is complete, the Compare Project Versions— Done dialog will appear as shown in Figure 3.

Comparing Two Versions of an MS-Project ScheduleKelly Jones, PMP, Sharp HealthCare (Member, MPA San Diego Chapter)

T

11. Click the Yes button to view the Comparison report legendas shown in Figure 4.

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Continued from page thirteen

12. Click the Close button to close the legend dialog and viewthe comparison report. Figure 5 shows a sample report. Thereport has three columns for each field you displayed instep 4:

a. A column showing the version 1 value (i.e."Duration: V1").

b. A column showing the version 2 value (i.e. "Duration: V2").

c. Based on the type of data represented in the fields beingcompared, the third column will show the differencebetween the version 1 value and the version 2 value (i.e.“Duration: Diff”) and contain one of the following:

i. Numeric and Date fields: A number showing thedifference between the version 1 value and the version2 value (i.e. 5 days).

ii. Text fields: A text assessment of “Equal” or “Different”to designate whether or not the version 1 value and theversion 2 value were the same.

13. To display a 3-way view that shows a task selected in thereport along side the original versions, click the button.

14. Use the task/resource filter pull-down on the CompareProject Versions toolbar to display subsets of therecords as follows:

a. Show all differences — only display tasks or resourcesthat have differences. A combination of filters b, e, and fbelow.

b. Show changed items — only display tasks or resourcesthat have changed at least one value between version 1and version 2.

c. Show unchanged items — only display tasks or

Figure 5: Sample comparison report for tasks

resources that have not changed at all between version 1and version 2.

d. Show common items — show tasks or resources that arecommon between version 1 and version 2.

e. Show unique items of version 1 — display version 1tasks or resources that do not appear in version 2.

f. Show unique items of version 2 — display version 2tasks or resources that do not appear in version 1.

g. Show all items — no filter applied.

15. Use the column display pull-down on the Compare ProjectVersions toolbar to display the following column options:

a. Show data and differences columns — display all threecolumns for each field as described in step 12 (a, b, and c).

b. Show data columns only — display only the datacolumns for each field described in step 12 (a andb only).

c. Show differences columns only — display onlythe differences columns for each field as describedin step 12c.

16. The button on the Compare Project Versions toolbarwill redisplay the legend dialog as shown in Figure 4.

17. To see resource differences, select Resource Sheet from theView menu in the comparison report. (This assumes youselected a table from the Resource Table list in step 9).

18. When you have finished your analysis, you may close thecomparison report schedule or save it as an MPP file forfuture use (File – Save command).

15

1 – Status Date before Start

2 – Status Date between Start and Finish

3 – Status Date after Finish

Formula:

Switch([External Task], 0, [Baseline Duration]=0, 0,

[Status Date] <= [Baseline Start], 1,

[Status Date] <= [Baseline Finish], 2,

[Status Date] > [Baseline Finish], 3)

Calculation for task and group summary rows: Formula

Number12 [Plan Dur]: Planned Duration:

Formula:

IIf([Number11] > 0, Choose([Number11], 0,

ProjDateDiff([BaselineStart],[Status Date)/480

ProjDateDiff([Baseline Start], [Baseline Finish])/480), 0)

Calculation for task and group summary rows: Rollup: Sum

Number13 [BL Dur]: Baseline Duration

Formula:

IIf([Number11] > 0, ProjDateDiff([Baseline Start],[Baseline Finish])/480, 0)

Calculation for task and group summary rows: Rollup: Sum

Number14 [Plan % Comp]: Planned %-complete (as integer: 0– 100)

Formula:

IIf([Number13]>0,Int(100*[Number12]/[Number13]+0.5), 0)

Calculation for task and group summary rows: Formula

MPA Grows Internationally — the MPA Mexico City Chapter!

The morning of 26 January 2006, marked the launch ofthe MPA Mexico City Chapter. Aligning with our goals formore growth internationally, the Mexico City launch is ourfirst entry into Latin America. Working closely withMicrosoft in Mexico, the Chapter Officers and Sponsors inconjunction with MPA, executed an inaugural event withnearly 120 attendees. The all-morning meeting, was astellar opportunity to meet colleagues, network and learnabout Microsoft Project. Since the launch, the Officershave been busy planning the Calendar of Events for 2006,as well as updating the chapters public and Members Onlywebsites with both Spanish language and content.Customers in Argentina and Monterrey are encouraged toattend the MPA Mexico City meetings. To learn more,please visit the MPA Mexico City website or contact theofficers at mexico@mympa.net.

Continued from page twelve

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